Major "America First" and "America Only" Twitter Accounts Exposed as Foreign Grifters

X added a feature. If you clicked on a tab called "About this account," you can see where accounts are actually based.

And it turns out that some of the most "pro-American" American First or America Only accounts are located in the patriotic states of Turkey, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

Bonchie here calls it a "glitch" but I think that's incorrect; X added the feature to increase transparency and so people could gauge the "authenticity" of an account.

The "Gazan" accounts turned out be a hoot and a half, too.

Motasem A Dalloul @AbujomaaGaza

Inside our tents, we're freezing... My children are trembling...
Gaza is freezing...

People pointed out that when this was posted, Gaza's overnight temperature was 65, and the daytime temperature was 80. That's not "freezing." That's May in San Diego.

But even more wonderfully: This account is based in... well, not Gaza.

The above was posted when it was 65 degrees at night (and 80 during the day), just to give you an idea of the kind of propaganda being spewed. For years, the above account has claimed to be reporting from the ground in Gaza. He's made hundreds of posts pushing fake claims about genocide, famine, and his own supposed hardships. In reality, his account was created in the United Kingdom, and he's currently residing in Poland.

Where, admittedly, the temperature is much colder.

I'm sure you will not be surprised to learn that the most aggressive Jew-hating "America First" accounts are actually based in Islamic countries.

"CounterAIPAC," which rails against foreign Jews subverting American politics through AIPAC, turns out to be, get this, an Egyptian subverting American politics by representing himself as America First.

Other accounts seeking to subvert American politics are owned by leftists in Canada. But they claim they're rootin'-tootin' American patriots.

One odd thing: There are apparently a lot of "Native American" accounts calling for hatred and violence against the white man for stealing their land. They turn out to be based in... Bangladesh.

People have been saying for years that "Twitter is not real life," and it definitely seemed that Nick Fuentes' crew of Hitler-admirers had an outsized presence on Twitter not visible in real-life America.

That's because a lot of them are just Islamic Jew-haters and anti-American trouble-makers and dissent-sowers in foreign countries.

Robby Soave @robbysoave

I was reflexively disinclined to believe it was all foreign accounts promoting racism and anti-Semitism under the guise of the pro-Trump America First banner. That sounded too easy, and similar to the (now debunked) idea that all the Trump content on Facebook in 2016 was actually Russian bots.

But... this "account based in" feature actually has unmaked tons of groypers as Pakistani, as far as I can tell? Very useful feature, and kudos to Elon Musk and the X team for implementing it. The hate is not coming from inside the house!

This guy, with an all-American face and an all-American family, said his family had converted to Islam and faced "threats of being fired"!

Country where the account is based: West Asia.

I saw one "America First" account exposed as run from Pakistan objecting: Just because I'm in Pakistan, my opinion doesn't count?

Not in American politics, Mohammad. And you seem to have understood your opinion didn't account when you pretended to be an American.

There's a lot of this, as now-exposed-as-foreigners "American influencer" accounts argue that Americans should be accepting of "outside voices" subverting their politics.

Matt Walsh @MattWalshBlog

17h

We cannot have a coherent or productive political debate if the dialogue includes a whole bunch of random foreigners from all across the world who have no stake in this country, no skin in the game, and no first hand knowledge of our culture at all. It is very important to identify the foreign intruders and bully them mercilessly until they shut up and leave us alone. We cannot talk about or fix any of our problems with a mob of foreigners constantly barging into the conversation.

We are nigh-constantly bombarded with "outside voices" telling us Americans how to vote -- all of the foreign media, most foreign governments. The UK's Labour Party sends over political operatives to interfere in our elections.

We put up with a lot of "outside voices."

I do think we can and should draw the line at dirty foreigners pretending to be Americans. This is astroturf. We didn't accept it when David Axelrod flooded the internet with "Concerned Christian Conservatives" telling us that Barack Obama was the True Conservative Choice for president, and we shouldn't accept these foreign psyop operatives interfering in our elections either.

All this said, X acknowledged that the location provided for some accounts may be inaccurate.

"This is an important first step to securing the integrity of the global town square. We plan to provide many more ways for users to verify the authenticity of the content they see on X," Bier wrote on X on Saturday.

Not everyone was eager to reveal the origin of their accounts. Users in places that limit freedom of speech could face political repercussions. Some users called it forced doxxing. Others said that if a user created an account using a VPN routed through another country, the location information may not be accurate.

On Saturday, X removed information about where some accounts were created. Bier said the data "was not 100 percent," especially for older accounts, and that the company plans to "bring it back by Tuesday."

Five hours later, he posted again: "I need a drink."

Late Sunday, he added that there would be an upgrade in 12 hours and that location accuracy would be "nearly 99.99%."

X appears to have factored in the VPN point. On Monday morning, Business Insider tested the "About This Account" feature from a device using a VPN and found a notice that warns the "country or region may not be accurate" due to the use of a proxy.

The location function also comes with an accuracy disclaimer, which states: "The country or region that an account is based can be impacted by recent travel or temporary relocation. This data may not be accurate and can change periodically."

I've seen people say that while some podcasts -- like Tucker Carlson's -- have big ratings, most of those viewers are actually foreigners who are, for reasons you can guess, very invested in his heavy anti-Israel/anti-Jewish propaganda.

I don't know if there's any way to prove that. It makes sense but I don't know who would have those numbers. Tucker Carlson would -- but he's not revealing them.

posted by Ace at 03:40 PM

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